Thecodontosaurus antiquus ("Ancient Socket Tooth Lizard") was
an herbivorous dinosaur which lived throughout the Late Triassic period
(Norian and/or Rhaetian age). Its remains are known typically from Triassic
"fissure fillings" in South England and Wales. On standard,
it was 4 feet (1.25 meters) long, 1 foot tall (0.3 meters), and weighed
25 pounds (11 kilograms).

Although not actually the first member of the group (that honour belongs
to as yet unnamed sauropodomorphs from Madagascar (Flynn and Wyss 2002)),
Thecodontosaurus is the most prehistoric well-known representative of
the sauropodomorph dinosaurs. At first it was included under the prosauropoda
(Upchurch 1998) but more recently it has been optional that Thecodontosaurus
and its relatives were prior to the Prosauropod-Sauropod split (Yates
& Kitching 2003). New reconstructions demonstrate that its neck is
proportionally shorter than in higher early sauropodomorphs.

The Thecodontosaurus was an injured party of World War 2 bombings by
the Germans. The remains of this dinosaur and other fabric related to
it were shattered in 1940. However, more remains have been found at a
number of localities, counting Bristol. Some of this new material pertains
to a young specimen that may belong to a separate species, Thecodontosaurus
caducus Yates, and 2003